Misato
Misato marveled at the numbers. Rei's test was not only surpassing expectation, but far exceeding her previous records. The synchronization rate was the highest it had ever been, and the threshold for acceptable connection was passed faster than ever before. Rei was, in many ways, on the save wavelength as her Evangelion.
There was something odd, though. Her responses were more curt than usual, as if she were struggling to focus. The numbers were high, so Misato pushed the worry from her mind. "You're doing great," she said, her voice beaming with real pride.
As she watched the test unfold, she was handed a report. Bold font at the top of the page declared the message to be "Urgent: immediate action required". There was strange activity within a volcano. Signs suggested it was an Angel, and an unhatched Angel, at that.
The potential was amazing. Not only had one of the pilots improved dramatically, but there was also the potential to research a complete, unhatched Angel. For the first time in weeks, it was as if fate had given her an uncomplicated victory.
Suddenly, a screen beeped. The high-pitched ding was designed to be as non-obtrusive as possible while still being distinct. Despite that intention, each set of eyes snapped to the sound, as if all expected the screen to herald the words of the heavens.
Misato walked to the screen. "Status?"
The Nerv member swallowed. "Pattern confirmed off the coast of the Kii peninsula. It's blue."
Captain Katsuragi nearly dropped the report she'd been handed. "You've gotta be kidding," her words caught Zenitsu's and Tanjiro's attention.
"What's happening?" Zenitsu asked.
Misato tapped Ritsuko on the arm and passed her the report. Dr. Akagi glanced at the screen, looked at the paper. The normally composed doctor gasped quietly in shock. This barely audible noise tore everyone's attention away from the test. Ritsuko never showed fear on the job. "This isn't supposed to be possible."
"What is it?" Zenitsu asked again.
The Captain took control. "Dr. Akagi, suspend the test." She marched to the microphone. "Rei, prepare for immediate battle. An Angel has been spotted." She left the microphone on as she turned to the rest of the room. "Notify the other pilots immediately."
Procedure and instinct took hold of everyone. Notify the UN. Prepare a base. Prepare and ship out the necessary resources. The plans, back-up plans, and what-if scenarios had been drilled into them so effectively that only half an order was necessary before each person knew their part.
"What's going on?" Zenitsu yelled.
Finally, she turned to them. Their situation was dire, but they had one unexpected bonus, three actually. If not for the slayers, she would have been much more worried. "Two Angels have appeared at once. Get Inosuke and prepare for battle immediately."
Inosuke
The self-taught warrior didn't bother with stealth. He was no longer any form of ally with Nerv. He leapt up the elevator shaft, ducking into a vent to sidestep descending elevators.
The alarm didn't phase him. If there was an Angel, the pilots could handle it. Right now, he was going to get the answers they'd all been denied.
Soon, he found the right floor. He shoved his swords between the doors and began pulling. The metal bent away from his furious work. He didn't both to slide the doors open; rather, he peeled an opening into the metal so he could dive in.
Gendo's absurd office lay before him. Empty, as expected. The black floor, covered in blue, rune-like patterns, seemed like something Muzan would have furnished. It only made him angrier. It was a waste of space. It looked evil. How could that coward hide here while his son fought.
He jumped into the room. As soon as he did so, a thick glass cone fell around the desk. Over a dozen openings appear in the ceiling with a whoosh. As Inosuke looked up, the sprinklers showered orange fluid onto him.
The scent of blood filled the room as it coated him.
"Bastard!" he roared, turning back through the orange shower and leaping into the elevator shaft.
He grabbed onto a cable of a lower elevator. The fumes rose from the fluid. His mask was soaked. The fur seemed to steam. His skin burned. Inosuke tore off his mask and gasped, holding himself with one arm as the fumes hit.
The LCL caused no pain itself. His skin felt fine as it dripped down him. But the fumes… It was as if his were breathing fire.
"Bastard!" he screamed.
Misato
"The UN is ready to drop an N2 mine on whichever location you choose to avoid," spoke the voice on the other end of the phone.
"You can't make that decision," Misato somehow kept her voice calm. "We have the resources to handle both threats. Don't rewrite the map – again! – on a whim. Standby, this is Nerv's jurisdiction."
"Did you predict that two Angels—"
She hung up. She wanted that question answered, too. Every report and prediction stated that they could only appear in single file, with days or weeks separating each one. This was supposed to be impossible. Even sighting the egg under Mt Asama should have been impossible. It should have taken days to notice something odd, investigate, decide it was an Angel, and then move toward extraction.
Not only was the world becoming a stranger place, but the foundations of reality seemed to be changing. She whirled on the two Angel Slayers who'd been following her. "Where's the pig-head?"
"I don't know," they said in unison.
"Bullshit, you don't know!"
As they marched to the main room, Kaji ran past in the opposite direction. "What's the ETA on Asuka?" she called after him.
"Seven minutes," the asshole said with a seriousness so unlike him. "The heat suit may take longer to prepare."
"Make it happen!" she barked.
"Aye, Captain!" Kaji turned, winked, and gave her a tastelessly extravagant salute.
She allowed herself a moment of disdain before turning back to the Slayers. "We need all three of you. There are two Angels. We'll send the three of you and one Evangelion to fight one, and the other two will go to the other."
Tanjiro flashed a winning smile that, under the current circumstances, seemed less appropriate than anything Kaji had ever done. "We can take—"
They both froze and flinched as they looked at her. As her grip tightened on her jacket sleeves, and her teeth gritted, she realized what had made them stiffen. They kept talking about feeling auras and energy. Maybe they recognized how impatient she was in the moment. Captain Katsuragi breathed. Fury would get her nowhere. This was no time to be emotional. She needed to be the captain. As the commanding officer of the Eva pilots, she was, in a sense, equally responsible for the Slayers. "Listen, both of you. When it comes to fighting the Angels, I give the orders. You will follow my orders. Understood?"
Zenitsu scoffed. Before he could retort, Misato stepped forward. "Understood?"
Tanjiro nodded. Soon, Zenitsu did also. "Good," she said. "Now where is Inosuke?"
Her answer came a few seconds later. As they approached the door to the main observation room, she heard angry grunts from within a vent. The vent broke off, pushed by a calloused hand dripping orange liquid. Misato froze as he emerged, panting and fuming. His hair was matted against his face. Bloodshot eyes glared at her. The orange liquid that covered him was unmistakable. His mask, hanging from his hand, was dripping the fluid.
Tanjiro stepped back, covering his nose and mouth.
Her and the others began at once, "Where—"
"Lots of Reis!" he yelled. "One with green hair. LCL in Gendo's office."
The colour drained from Misato. Many Reis… he found it. But green hair? She made a mental note to explore that room at the soonest possible chance. There was no time now, though. She didn't even have time to assuage the fears of her allies.
LCL in Gendo's office… "Inosuke," she stepped forward. "What do you mean LCL in Gendo's office?"
He rubbed his bloodshot eyes, growling like an animal. She gave him a handkerchief as Tanjiro rushed to his friend. "Rain," he said. "Little metal things came from the ceiling. Orange rain. Glass wall went down around the desk. Started soon as I entered the room."
LCL sprinklers? A wall around the desk? How was it activated? No, those were the wrong questions. What was Gendo hiding specifically from the slayers?
"Stop bothering him!" Zenitsu yelled, moving past her to help his friend.
"Are you okay?" asked Tanjiro.
Captain Katsuragi gritted her teeth. There was no time. "Tanjiro. Get him to a shower and help him wash this off immediately. Inosuke, I want the details of this later. But right now, there's an Angel attacking the coast, and there's another Angel coming. Do you need to sit this out?"
"Like hell!" he stood. "I'm fighting!"
Misato nodded. "In that case, clean yourself up and prepare for battle."
"Hang on!" Zenitsu yelled. "You need to answer for this."
Her professionalism cracked. The fury and impatience she'd been bottling spilled over. Zenitsu flinched. "Right now, I need to be in two different places at once. Neither of them is with you. Now, follow my orders or get out of my way."
Asuka
"Really, why is everyone so stressed out?" Asuka asked as she changed into the heat resistant plug suit.
Yeah, two Angels appeared. Big deal. Rei and those cheap kabuki actors could handle the one. Asuka, meanwhile, had convinced herself that she was on the truly important mission. Asuka would be responsible for the first ever capture of a live Angel. The sample would be invaluable. It only made sense that the prototype and the katana mascots would be sent out to the coast.
Asuka, with Shinji as cheerleader and witness, would do that which had never been done before.
"Two simultaneous Angels changes everything," Ritsuko said, madly scrawling on a clipboard.
"How so?" Asuka asked. "We've got three pilots and those idiots. It's not like we lack the resources to attack both of them."
Ritsuko's only response was a brief pause in her writing. This simple gesture had a message: you're just a kid; you don't understand how severe this is.
"Well, I think you're all exaggerating. I'll get you that sample. If Rei and the others don't have the other Angel defeated by then, we'll ship Unit-02 to the coast and I'll defeat that. Let them all sit back and watch as I show them what I can do."
Ritsuko didn't look at her. Dammit, why wasn't anyone looking at her? What was so special about those colourful idiots? She was the best pilot. She was the one who'd worked so hard. But she'd make them see. After she got that sample, she'd make them see.
Rei
She'd never thought about the LCL fluid. Rei Ayanami was a pilot, nothing more. She stayed in the entry plug. The LCL fluid surrounded her. It had never been worth thinking about, until now.
The smell consumed her. It was as if blood filled her throat and nostrils. Her breathing was unobstructed, but she felt it gently move in and out of her nostrils as she breathed. Little wet sensations dripped down her throat. It was wrong. All was wrong.
The strangeness began when she convinced Dr. Akagi to try the experiment. Her dreams had become strange. She'd woken up from odd images and sounds. Her body changed soon after. She craved activity. It felt as if her muscles were screaming for movement if she stayed stationary too long.
Inside the Eva, however, she noticed the greatest difference. Rei felt as if she were the heart and mind of the weapon. "Pilot" didn't explain it. She was one with the Eva. It felt as if she were moving her own body when she operated the beast.
The thought struck her. She'd never used that word to describe an Eva.
"Beast."
"Are you alright, Rei?" said Misato's voice over the comms. "I know it's longer than you're used to, but we need you to stay in the Eva until you arrive at the Angel's location."
"Understood."
Images floated past her as she spoke. She saw herself. Phantoms of her own body drifted through the entry plug with her. Occasionally, she thought she heard herself laugh in the distance.
Rei decided not to report this. Dr. Akagi would hear of it later. If things became frightening, she would talk to Gendo.
She missed Gendo.
Another sound rang from within her memory. The whole scene played out. Sword from sheath. A reactive scream. A slow gasp and a sudden spiked heartrate. Panic. I could have died. These visions only appeared in her nightmares and in the entry plug. But it was also here, stewing in the entry plug, where she found her greatest defense.
Again, the scene played out before her. The yellow-haired boy brought his sword down toward her. This time, he didn't stop. An orange, metallic hand grabbed the sword. Sparks flew on contact. Zenitsu seemed shocked. Rei stared down at the boy as she grew, becoming the Eva. Zenitsu was small.
She was the pilot.
What had Asuka called her? Prototype.
Yes. Prototype. Unfinished, but the first. Rei Ayanami was a necessary step forward in the evolution and history of humanity.
She looked down at herself. Her mind continued to play its games. As she looked down, her vision shifted between her plug suit and the body of the Eva. Her small hands became metallic. Her frail body became the strange weapon.
"Prototype," she said, tasting the word.
"What's that, Rei?" Misato's voice asked.
"Just thinking," she said.
"Alright. You'll be there in a few minutes. I know this is a bit late to ask, but are you okay fighting alongside the Slayers? I know you don't get along, but we need you to put that aside right now."
Sword. Metal.
"It's fine," she said. "I will follow orders."
Beyond the desire to follow orders, though, some odd voice within her said the camaraderie was right. She looked forward to fighting alongside the Slayers. This sense of power, these odd visions, all of it started because of them.
No, that was unfair. Not all of them were responsible for the changes that were occurring within Rei. Tanjiro was gentle. Inosuke had done her no harm. Zenitsu was the one who attacked her. Thanks to his actions, their fates were tied together.
She wondered if he knew. Her destiny was now intertwined with his, just as his was intertwined with hers.
Inosuke
"I knew it!" Zenitsu yelled with his old energy. "I told you. I told you both and everyone else. Something's wrong with Rei."
They were alone in the back of the plane. Unit-00 would fall from the plane behind them, while they landed. Obviously, Rei would get their faster, since she could drop directly onto the battlefield. They, meanwhile, needed to wait for the pilot to find a place to land, and only after that could they sprint to the fight.
If the Angel broke the surface of the water, Rei was to attack. Ideally, the monster would wait until the slayers joined the fray, but things never worked like that.
Inosuke shook his head. His skin still felt raw, despite the shower. The mask still reeked of the fluid, so it lay beside him. He felt like he was charging into battle naked, but that was how this battle would start.
"No," he said. "Rei's not… it's not her fault."
"Fault? You saw with your own eyes that she's not human."
"That's not right," he shook his head. "All of us have seen her. That girl is a person. She's got thoughts and feelings and… I want to know who did that to her."
Zenitsu pulled at his hair. "We're getting answers! I want to know why Gendo set up a trap in his office. And why—"
"Yes, Zenitsu." Tanjiro said. His voice cut off response. The old authority had returned. The smile was replaced with an earnestness few adults had in this Japan. "We kill the Angel. Then, we talk to Rei. If she's connected to Nerv, that's better for us. We'll make sure they all hear us. There are a lot of people at Nerv who don't know what's happening."
Inosuke kneaded his hands. He felt twitchy. He missed the fight. All this talking with so little fighting was all wrong. He wanted to charge into battle, hoisting rocks, dodging blasts of energy. The questions would wait. Fight the enemy. The enemy was the Angel. The other enemy was Gendo.
He'd fight the Angel. He'd talk to Misato. Easy…
"Why didn't Misato give us a Comm thingy?" he asked. "We could explain as we flew out."
Zenitsu shook his head. "Anyone can listen to those. She wants us to debrief when we're with her on the ground, not in a plane."
Inosuke groaned. "What difference does it make if we're on the ground or in a plane?"
Slowly, Tanjiro covered his mouth. "You don't think they'd really…"
"What?"
Zenitsu groaned. "What if they decide we know too much? If they shot this plane out of the sky, we wouldn't survive. We're at their mercy up here."
"Know too much?" Inosuke said. "How can a person know too much?"
"You don't, that's for sure! Why are we dependent on you? You've seen more than any of us, but you can't understand anything. You're just an idiot."
"Enough," Tanjiro stood. "We fight the Angel. We confront Rei. We inform Misato. Okay?"
Inosuke nodded. Zenitsu hesitated before doing so. Why was Zenitsu so weird lately? They killed monsters. There was a monster to kill.
A million other problems came to mind. He forced them back. There was only the fight. The glorious fight! Finally, he could fight again!
Nothing else mattered.
Nothing else mattered…
Rei
Unit-00 stood on the beach.
At one time, this coast had been beautiful, Rei thought. People had come here to spend time relaxing on the sand, enjoying the sun and the water. It was once a place of beauty and peace.
Now, ruins of old cities poked above the raised surface of the water. The beach now spoke of isolation, destruction, and entropy. In that regard, she supposed, this beach was never used. Before the second impact, the coast had been a long distance from here. This beach had never been enjoyed. The coast that once existed was now obliterated, leaving behind a shadow of the past while the new stood proud.
This was what the Angels had wrought. The landscape had forever changed. Not only that, but it kept changing. The world was no longer recognizable. People simply had to accept it. To adapt.
Some people, though, had greater ambition than that. Instead of adapting to the world, why not try to adapt the world to them? If the world had changed so radically toward this, it could change radically again. More radically. The map would not only be re-written, but humanity would be redefined. A plan was at work to change the way life existed in this world. Thought and reality would merge.
The vision of Gendo Ikari and those like him would see fruition. It was already so much bigger than that one man. He was simply the useful face to represent all interested. Gendo was a great man, but he was just a man.
Rei Ayanami was the prototype of what came next.
An Angel broke through the water. This gorgeous thing was so nearly human, yet so different. Rei moved. The Eva moved. It was the same action.
A gun fired. Bullets flew. The Angel halted as it was struck. One of Rei's hands stayed on the gun while the other raised the spear. The great long weapon had been meant for Unit-02, but she could make use of it.
Rei approached the Angel, her steps leaving massive prints in the sand. The shell casings left in this battle would be indistinguishable from the other debris. Soon, the Angel's corpse would join the ruin.
The prototype approached the Angel. Each step forward brought her closer to her destiny. She once thought of her duty as a placid thing. Rei Ayanami existed to follow orders. She was a tool. She was wrong. Humanity could not be united without her.
She was replaceable, of course. But the girl known as Rei Ayanami was instrumental for all that which would come to pass.
The bullets ended. The gun fell to the ground. Rei leapt. Her feet danced across the rooftops that poked above the water. The Angel watched her, struggling to keep up with her motions. Rei charged. The spear lifted, point to the sky. The Angel would die here. Its death was necessary. For all humans to become more beautiful, this wonderful creature had to fall.
The blade of the spear sliced through the Angel. Its body neatly folded away from the attack in two meaty chunks.
"Wow…" Misato's voice echoed in the Entry plug.
Suddenly, Rei was a pilot again. She was a child in a plug suit. Though she was uniquely qualified, her position was absurd. Rather than feeling like a titan with her weapon, she felt trapped within the entry plug.
"Mission success," she said without feeling. The words were a reminder. She needed to remember that the words came from her, not from Unit-00. Her voice sounded strange to her.
"Watch out!"
Suddenly, both halves of the Angel shed their skin. A new face appeared on each. The colours changed on their bodies as they separated. The newly orange and grey monsters encroached on her from both sides.
"This is bullshit!" Misato yelled over the comms.
Rei stared. Where was that peacefulness she had known a minute before? She wanted it back. She demanded it. She'd never felt so small in her life as she sat piloting the Angel. It was as if she were trapped within her own body.
As she hesitated, another monster appeared. From near her feet, a large dragon of sparks appeared. With fire and lightning foaming from its mouth, the dragon struck one of the grey Angel's legs. A hundred cuts appeared as the Angel staggered.
Rei looked down, the three Slayers were on a rooftop nearby. All were raising their swords. Trails of sparks were still emitting from Zenitsu.
Instinct returned. Rei bent under the orange Angel's attack, stretching her hand out to them. They leapt into her palm. She stood, blocking a strike from the orange Angel with her spear. As she was pushed back, all three leapt onto the orange Angel.
In that moment, they were allies. Questions of loyalty or animosity vanished in the battle.
Her target, the grey Angel, had only just recovered from the attack. Rei pressed forward. Claw and spear bounced off each other. She saw its movements as if she were reading them. Its body seemed to be a single shaped block, rather than a construct of muscle and organs. The grey beast swiped and growled, its featureless face gazing at her all the while. For the first time, adrenaline surged through Rei. She found joy in combat.
She attacked. The Angel knocked the spear away. She barely kept one hand on the spear as the Angel buried its claws into her abdomen. She ignored the pain. The prog knife readied at her shoulder. She took it and brought it down on the grey arm. The grey Angel wailed in pain.
Rei and Eva and Angel and Slayer. All were one, Rei saw. She was the strangest of the group. A teasing thought tickled her mind, tugging the corners of her lips into a smile she wanted to fight. She felt above them. After all, Angel and Eva and Slayer were nearly the same species. A combination of all would be angelic.
The humour of it broke through her modesty. Alone in the entry plug, Rei smiled. She held a peaceful expression as she turned with her opponent. She twisted her knife into its arm to get a firmer hold, then drove the spear into its side. Her foot twisted through the wreckage under the ankle-deep water until she found a firm anchor. In one motion, she flipped the Angel over her head. It hit the water with a colossal splash, sending the white foam up against her.
She wished she could feel that cool splash.
While pinning the beast, she looked to its other half. She saw the Slayers attack the orange Angel's mask-like face. All three slashed together. The mask cracked, then crumbled into the water. Blood poured from the wound as the now faceless creature reeled, making the Slayers struggle for purchase.
Rei moved. She pulled away from the claws, pinning the Angel's arm and body with her knee as she pulled the spear out. Her metal hand stretched out toward the beast. The three clambered over the writhing Angel, helping each other to move.
They struggled to stay together. They used their swords as holds as they pulled each other toward Rei. Tanjiro struggled most, his nearly useless arm flapping wildly. Zenitsu and Inosuke could barely keep hold of him. Rei thrust the spear toward them, hoping they would run down its length to the safety of her shoulders.
They seemed to understand. Zenitsu waved for her. Once more, the Angel lurched.
All three jumped, as the unsteady body from which they leapt pulled away from them. Zenitsu had jumped just in time, but Inosuke and Tanjiro faltered, clumsily launching into the air. The spear stopped near them. Zenitsu grabbed hold of the spear with one arm, then reached back. Though barely, he managed to clasp Inosuke's hand.
Inosuke reached to his other ally. Tanjiro flailed. He was twisting sideways through the air. His bad arm faced Inosuke. He could not reach out fast enough.
The battle wasn't over. Rei didn't consider what Inosuke was shouting as Tanjiro fell, or how Zenitsu responded as he hauled his friend onto the shaft of the spear.
Tanjiro would be fine. A fall like this? It was nothing.
As she lifted the spear with one hand, Rei grabbed the Angel with the other. It continued its agonised death throes as her metallic fingers dug into its shoulder. It was Rei's responsibility to put this creature out of its misery. She checked her allies. They had sprinted down the spear and were safely on her shoulder. She kicked the orange Angel's legs from under it and slammed it onto its grey twin.
One colossus fell onto another as Zenitsu and Inosuke clung to her shoulder. With both Angels at her feet, perfectly aligned, she gripped the spear with both hands. Somehow, she knew their cores were aligned.
She drove the spear through both of her opponents. The blade pierced quickly through them and deep into the ground. Rei was practically kneeling when she destroyed the cores. Only a few meters separated her from the Angels. Time seemed to slow as the bodies curled inward. Tiny tears appeared in their flesh. White hot energy poked through, then fire.
They exploded.
The fiery shockwave hit like the backhand of God.
Zenitsu
Unit-00 took the brunt of the explosion, but the force had sent Zenitsu and Inosuke flying. The world rushed past him as he fell. He caught glimpses of destruction. The shockwave had blown back the water, as if draining the lake for a moment. The submerged city was destroyed further, reduced to dust and gravel. Unit-00 roared, a strangled and inhuman sound that filled Zenitsu's ears.
The Slayers fell toward the earth, flailing and screaming.
Below them, the water returned slowly, draining back to the newly made crater. The waves flowed and swirled beneath them, picking up the debris in its churning waves.
The adrenaline, confusion, and terror were nothing new to Zenitsu. It was a battlefield. All those thoughts and emotions were part of the environment. As he fell, a different, familiar thought consumed him.
"Tanjiro!"
They struck the roiling waves. It was like hitting stone. The air was knocked from his lungs as he crashed through the water's surface. His body continued to tumble as pain dulled his senses. The water was being pulled toward the explosion's crater.
Zenitsu tried to approach the surface. Shards of glass rushed by him, slashing his arm. A chunk of asphalt struck his foot. His ankle snapped.
His mind screamed. Terror filled him. They beat the Angel! They beat Muzan! What kind of way was it to die? After victory, because of their victory. Drowning.
He tried to look around. His friends were lost in this temporary maelstrom. Jagged chunks of granite, glass, and metal filled his vision. The salt water stung his eyes.
Suddenly, his body slammed into metal. Massive orange fingers closed gently around him and pulled him from the water. He gasped and coughed as was held in the giant grasp. As his senses returned, he looked up. Unit-00 barely seemed affected by the explosion. He stared up at the Eva with terror. He was easy prey in Rei's palm.
All she needed to do was squeeze.
Instead, the hand which held him moved over the other. He was dropped onto an open palm, where Inosuke writhed and clutched at a massive gash in his side.
"What happened to you?" Zenitsu shrieked, shocked as the blood poured out of his friend.
"My swords…" he grunted. "Water knocked 'em out of my hands. I got cut by my own damn swords!" He seethed, muscles tensing and untensing. He punched the open palm, continuously cutting off a wail of pain.
Zenitsu tried to rush to his friend, but he buckled at the pain in his foot. He looked down. His left foot was bent the wrong way. He ignored it and crawled to his friend. "Did you see Tanjiro?" he tore off his cloak and pressed it over Inosuke's wound. The dozens of small cuts on his own arm seemed like nothing.
Meanwhile, the Eva waded through the water. With each step, Inosuke groaned.
Soon, the Eva's free hand plunged into the water. "She found him," Zenitsu realized. They must have some technology that could find him in the water. Did it notice his heat? His heartbeat? It could be anything. He didn't care what it was. He just wanted his friends. They would heal together, like the old times.
The hand lifted. Zenitsu hobbled a few feet from his friend and lifted his arms. Rei's other hand rose over him. Slowly, gently, it turned. Tanjiro slumped and fell into Zenitsu's arms. He wasn't moving.
"I was worried there, ya prick!" Inosuke called, trying and failing to sound cheerful. "Tanjiro, don't scare us like that."
Zenitsu said nothing. Tanjiro wasn't moving. His scar was invisible behind the blood. There was a chunk missing from his head.
Misato
"The Angel under Mt Asama—" one of the team members began reporting. Misato silenced him with a raised hand.
"Wait!" She needed to focus. The captain ordered an immediate medical team to the Slayers' and Rei's location.
What had Rei done? No, how had she done it? The synchronization rate, which had been so difficult for her for so long, had reached a new record. During the battle, it had matched Shinji's numbers. How?
Misato was almost able to ignore the dragon made of lightning. She'd think of it later, she knew. Right now, she had to focus on bringing medical attention to Tanjiro. The sight of him had nearly made her sick. A child had hit his head while being pushed by a strong water current. It was too much like the corpses that still haunted her nightmares. Tanjiro looked like the hundreds of people who'd died without ever knowing what an Angel was.
There wasn't time to think like that. Whatever condition Tanjiro was in, Inosuke needed immediate help. The angry grunts had died into ragged breaths. The intense writhing had turned into violent twinges. Only Zenitsu had energy, but he could hardly move from the broken foot. Unit-00 wouldn't be able to get far with its limited time and energy.
The decision had to be made. They would wait on the beach. Medical attention would be flown to them.
"Is there anything else I can do?" Rei asked over the comms.
Misato hesitated. "No," the captain stated. "Just stay on the line and await further instruction. Also, Rei…" She was transfixed on the video feed. Like everyone else in the room, she saw three brutalized teenagers bleeding into the palm of an Eva. She was glad there was no audio. She didn't want to know what things Zenitsu yelled as the tears streamed down his face. Captain Katsuragi said, "Stay inside the entry plug for now."
"Understood," Rei said.
Misato sighed and stepped back. The work continued. "What's the update?" she asked the man she'd interrupted.
He pushed up his glasses as he replied, "The Angel under Mt Asama hatched during the extraction process. Units 02 and 01 have since destroyed it. Neither pilot is harmed."
Two victories in one day… if only she felt like celebrating.
She looked back at the screen. Tanjiro still hadn't moved.